FCC moves forward on agreement to ease burden of siting towers

The FCC has adopted a Nationwide Programmatic Agreement designed to provide tower builders with certainty over tower siting and ease the burdens of the approval process.

The FCC expects two other relevant parties, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Offices, to enter into the agreement by the end of the month.

Key elements include:

Describing standards for identifying historic properties that may be affected by an undertaking and assessing effects on those properties;

Outlining procedures for communicating with federally recognized Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to ensure protection of historic properties;

Establishing categories of undertakings that are excluded from the section review process, including enhancements to existing towers, replacement and temporary towers, certain towers constructed on industrial and commercial properties or in utility corridor rights-of-way, and construction in areas designated by a SHPO.

The parties are in the final stages of drafting a set of “best practices” that identify methods by which the communications tower industry and USET Tribes can work together to preserve properties of religious and cultural significance.

Section 106 of the National Historical Preservation Act (NHPA) requires the FCC (and other federal agencies) to consider the effects of federal undertakings on historic properties. Without a Programmatic Agreement with specific procedures in place, the FCC has to follow the rules of the Advisory Council on Historic Pre

As reported in RF Report for Sept. 21, 2004 , the FCC adopted a Report and Order to implement a Nationwide Programmatic Agreement (NPA) to facilitate review of communications facilities under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA). Last week the FCC released the Report and Order impleme